Manic Street Preachers – Postcards From A Young Man
Postcards From A Young Man, the Manic’s tenth album, left no bell or whistle unmolested it would seem. Across a dozen songs there are gospel choirs, lavish orchesteral arrangements, horns, mandolins, guitar solos, sparkling production and guest spots from the likes of John Cale, Ian McCulloch and Duff McKagen.
Euphoric and uplifting, Postcards From A Young Man is a far cry from the Manic Street Preachers’ previous album Journal For Plague Lovers, which used the lyrics from missing-presumed-dead founding member Richey Edwards. As ever there’s the Manics clunky, left-leaning social commentary (“pointless jobs lead to pointless lives” etc) but there’s still something so joyous and vibrant about Postcards From A Young Man that you can’t help but get swept up by it.
Auto-Intoxication is a nice slice of glammy ’70s rock and The Future Has Been Here 4eva has a Pavement feel to it. Patchy but life-affirming.
3/5
Review: Alison Grinter
